WebMO is very useful and helpful for many world-wide Gaussian & GAMESS users, so I'm examining commercial use of WebMO (like Application Service Provider business based on WebMO and Gaussian). Is such a commercial use of WebMO permitted? And, if the permission depends on WebMO versions (Free/Pro/Enterprise), please tell me which version of WebMO can be used for commercial use.

Yes, commercial use of WebMO is permitted, both for research & development and for delivery of computational services.

There is no fee for commercial use of "WebMO Free." However, to use WebMO Pro or Enterprise, you would purchase a "commercial license" rather than an "academic license."

The choice among WebMO Free/Pro/Enterprise would depend on the features you would want to offer your users. I would guess that most users would expect to see Pro features in a commercial product, and Enterprise would be necessary to deploy WebMO on a cluster and/or support user groups. But the choice of version is up to you.

Of course, you would also need to obtain appropriate licensing for commercial use of the underlying computational engine, e.g., Gaussian, from the respective company, e.g., Gaussian, Inc.

Thank you for your prompt reply and detailed information, and I'm glad to hear commercial use of WebMO is permitted :-)

I understand that purchasing "commercial license" is needed for commercial use of WebMP Pro or Enterprise (and license of underlying computational engine such as Gaussian). I will begin selecting appropriate version of WebMO for my case as considering what you wrote.

Can I use WebMO Free/Pro/Enterprise for constructing a commercial WebMO website to EXTERNAL users (people who are NOT members of my company)? I'm thinking about an ASP business that I construct a WebMO website and earn money from lots of EXTERNAL users as a charge for Gaussian computation service via WebMO. Please let me know which WebMO version can/cannot be used for my use-case.

You may use WebMO Free/Pro/Enterprise for a commercial site that is accessible by external users. In addition to obtaining a commercial license from WebMO LLC for WebMO, it is your responsibility to obtain a separate license from Gaussian Inc. that would allow external users to use their software. (My understanding is that Gaussian Inc.'s normal site license or individual license does not cover this situation, so you would need to work out this specific situation with them separately.)

I'm happy to hear that I may use WebMO Free/Pro/Enterprise for a commercial site that is accessible by external users :-) Thank you for pointing out about a separate license from Gaussian Inc., I'll make a plan to obtain it.

I am working on a grant proposal to deliver computational chemistry to schools via the web, using WebMO as the interface. The granting agency does not allow purchase of computer equipment, so I am looking for a web hosting company that will run computational software (Gaussian, Gamess, NWCHEM) and host a WebMO web site. Can anyone suggest such a web-host provider? Thanks.

I think you may be hard pressed to find a traditional web hosting company that will let you burn that many resources. But there may be companies that well effectively lease you an entire server, who will not care what you do with the CPU cycles!

Alternatively, you should contact NCSA. I know they had done some work with WebMO for high school students, and using some of there servers may be feasible.

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